Democrats Want to Turn Over Trump Jr. Transcripts to Mueller, Suggesting He Made False Statements to Committee

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe heats up, Democrats from the Senate Judiciary Committee want to hand over transcripts of Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony to FBI investigators. In a letter to Republican chairman Chuck Grassley, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse suggested that President Donald Trump's oldest son made false statements to members of the committee last year."You have stated publicly that you believe it is important for the Special Counsel to carry his investigation through to completion and determine the facts," Blumenthal and Whitehouse wrote in a letter to the Republican committee chairman Wednesday.

"It is hard to see how withholding the transcripts achieves that goal. We urge you to take immediate steps to resolve this inconsistency."

They added: "The transcripts of congressional testimony may reveal other, and better-founded, concerns about witness false statements."

Donald Trump, Jr. (R) greets his father Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during a town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016. Photo by Rick Wilking-Pool/Getty Images

Trump Jr. met with members of the committee in September 2017 to discuss a June 2016 meeting he and other Trump campaign officials had with a Kremlin-linked lawyer. In an email proposing the meeting, Trump Jr. had been promised damning information about 2016 democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"It is our understanding that the Committee has not shared transcripts of these interviews with the Special Counsel’s Office, despite the investigative relevance of their contents to that Office," Blumenthal and Whitehouse wrote in their shared release.

After Trump Jr.'s September testimony, Blumenthal claimed there were "gaps" in what Trump Jr. said, and requested the chairman subpoena the president's son for a public testimony in December 2017. Though there were several calls from Democrats for a public hearing late last year, no such interview has yet taken place.

"I did not collude with any foreign government and do not know of anyone who did," Trump Jr. said in an opening statement before the closed-door meeting in September.

In recent weeks, it has been revealed that Mueller has questioned top Trump officials as well individuals who have previously had a leading role in the Russia probe. Those include Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Director of the National Security Agency Mike Rogers, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, former FBI Director James Comey, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

In an impromptu conversation with reporters Wednesday night, President Donald Trump said that he would be willing to talk to Mueller, and even said he was prepared to speak under oath. "I’m looking forward to it, actually," Trump said.

Democrats Want to Turn Over Trump Jr. Transcripts to Mueller, Suggesting He Made False Statements to Committee
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January 25, 2018
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